NPG "Première"

L'extinction du dernier site officiel de Prince au début 2000, l'énorme Loveforoneanother.com, laissait un triste écran d'accueil de téléchargement d'une vidéo aux accents aussi philosophique que typographique (à la "Sign O'The Time") One Song. Seul restait le site commercial 1800-New Funk.com (un magasin virtuel dédié au marchandising NPG plus viable que celui, bien réel, qui avait fermé ses portes à Londres il y a quelques années). Les moribondes pages du Paisley Park Studios restaient bien fades.…
Le 4 mars 2000 sur la chaîne musicale am…ricaine VH-1, Prince a reçu le Soul Train Award de "l'artiste de la d…cennie cat…gorie masculine" (Whitney Houston remportant celui de l'artiste féminine).
C'est durant cette nuit que Prince a annoncé l'ouverture de son troisième site officiel (qui devait aussi inaugurer la troisième génération de sites Web). Preview à l'appui.

The end of Loveforoneanother.com left all the Prince fans quite lonely. This site was massive, with a deep philosophy inside. Same spirit with the final screen One Song. 1800-New Funk.com was still online, and 4 a longtime, despite the closure of the Prince shop in London.
4 marsh 2000, on VH - 1, Prince received theBest Male of the decade Soul Train Award (Whitney Houston had the female price), and he announces his new site. The preview let the fans very exicted…

 

5.Mar.2000

NPG Online

Surprise générale : en plus du changement d'adresse, la refonte du nouveau site officiel de Prince est totale et adopte un profil carrément RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE : le site emprunte sa forme à un ticket de transport (ou plutôt une carte de paiement multi-usages, comme celle qu'on devra bien serrer dans son portefeuille en 2025).
Véritable New Power Prince Center de référence pour toute l'actualité princière, il n'a pas le poids de défunt prédécesseur, mais graphiquement et du point de vue de la navigation et de l'inovation, c'est certainement l'un des premiers du genre, d'autant que The Vault a véritablement contribué à la diffusion des MP3 online. npgmusiclub.com vient enfoncer le clou, le 14 février 20001…

Big surprise: the new site is radicaly different from the huge ancient site. The profile, design and direction is quite a revolution : the credit-card (or transport ticket, or either of them all, as a futuristic system), is very cool. The site is so different that some people first criticize the design. Now, we can say this is THE only official and UNDISPUTED Prince Site. Less philosophy and more politic views.
The Vault started the mp3 "emancipation". They R here 2 change the world. npgmusicclub will stomp the fonk 4 the St Vanlentin's Day…

npgonlineltd

6.Mar.2000

Rave Unt2 The Futur

Voici des extraits (en anglais) du point de vue d'UPTOWN (Site d'un Fanzine non officiel mais incontournable sur l'Artiste) concernant l'échec (relatif, car bientôt - ou plutôt enfin - disque d'or aux states) de son dernier album "Rave Unt2 The Joy Fantastic". Plus qu'une opinion, il sagit là d'un véritable état des lieux du Rave effect… Les sources, issues de l'industrie musicale, sont sûres et indiscutables. Il nourrit les espoirs, mais aussi les déceptions, des admirateurs de l'artiste. Sa lecture rejoint l'opinion que je m'étais déjà faite, mais démontre les influences capitales de l'entourage et de l'environnement sur le comportement humain.
La question est, en ce nouveau siècle : le succès commercial (ou la recherche des profits, autrement appelée capitalisme) est-il un objectif viable pour un artiste dont le potentiel artistique est encore gigantesque?. Notre - triste - société obsolète vaut-elle la peine de vendre son âme au diabolique Marketing hyper-capitaliste?

A Commentary on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic Project

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, as O(+>™s first major release in three years and his major label debut following his split from Warner Bros., generated high expectations that unfortunately have yet to be met. At the time of writing (mid-March), Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic has met with only modest commercial success and has not lived up to the hopes of either Arista Records or O(+> […]

Davis, continuing his hyperbole, predicted that "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" was going to be "number one all over the world," and O(+> also seemed certain in interviews that the song was going to be a big hit, saying that it was "gonna cut through everything on radio" and that "programmers won™t be afraid to play it." However, "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" had minimal commercial impact, and its failure sapped the Rave effort of its initial momentum […] After prompting by Arista, O(+> eventually got around to doing an edit of "Man ¡O™ War" and a remix of "Hot Wit U." He didn™t shoot videos for the songs, however, and at the time of writing, O(+>™s interest in the project seems to be seriously on the wane. According to music industry insiders, he has already discussed a new album with Epic Records […]

O(+> made some poor artistic decisions in the recording and assembling of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic that also contributed to the project™s apparent failure […] Most of O(+>™s contemporaries who broke through in the ¡80s, like Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and R.E.M. to name a few, appear to have developed and matured in sync with their audiences. Very little of what these artists do today seems geared towards appealing to the youth market. The lyrical contents and some of the music of Emancipation seemed to indicate that O(+> was entering a new phase of maturity; it was his most autobiographical work to date and many songs were unusually introspective […]

O(+> wants to be respected as a serious artist, but he is also fiercely competitive and feels the need to prove himself by achieving commercial success, regardless of whether it is measured by chart placings, sales, or in strictly financial terms, by being "number one at the bank […] If Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic does turn out to be a disappointment for O(+>, regardless of why and who is blamed, perhaps it is time for O(+> to reconsider his approach to music and the motives for releasing music. Is it still important to compete on the charts with mostly lesser talents and the "hippest" stars of the day? Or does he want to create bold, challenging music that breaks new ground and is unique and true to himself - music that may only occasionally appeal to a mass audience, but would gain critical acclaim and enhance his status as one of the most important artists in popular music? It remains something of a paradox that his most popular music of the ¡80s was also amongst his most challenging and experimental. Perhaps that is the real lesson that "O(+>" can learn from "Prince" and from the experience of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic?

UPTOWN magazine Uptown #38 (Acrobat pdf)